ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Storm-battered residents in the western Alaska village of Napakiak were preparing for the third storm in a week Tuesday, days after a minister had to use a front loader to free people from flooded homes. Napakiak, a Yup’ik village of about 350 residents in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, was flooded Sunday after heavy rains swelled the Kuskokwim River. Conditions beforehand were “pretty brutal,” with winds and a lot of rain, said Job Hale, the minister of Armory of God Baptist Church.
Then the water suddenly started rising as river currents pushed into town. It caught everyone by surprise because it wasn’t the normal spring or fall flooding, which residents prepare for, Hale said. People scrambled to move vehicles to higher ground, remove firewood from underneath their raised homes and secure water tanks.
“I have a front loader, which became very handy because there were several people that actually got stuck in their homes,” Hale said. Even though homes are elevated, the water level was 3 feet (about 1 meter) or more and coming up through floors. Three times he maneuvered the front loader to people’s doors, and they climbed inside the bucket for a ride to dry ground.
It was also used to rescue one person who needed medical aid, Hale said, adding that several residents told him they couldn’t remember flooding this bad in years. The water started to recede Sunday night, but some parts of town were still swamped two days later. Erosion has .